Donovan McNabb has tortured Eli Manning and the Giants over the years. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)

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It is likely the Giants would rise en masse and give Mike Shanahan a standing ovation if on Sunday, embroiled in a close game with the Giants, the Redskins head coach opts to plunk Donovan McNabb on the bench and push backup Rex Grossman in at quarterback.

The Giants have seen enough of McNabb over the past decade to prefer he’s on the sideline and not out there in the huddle, devising a way to take his team down the field one last time.

McNabb looks a whole lot different nowadays, playing for the mediocre Redskins and not the perennially strong Eagles. Life in the nation’s capital hasn’t been kind to McNabb, who is the NFL’s 27th ranked quarterback for the 5-6 Redskins, managing 11 touchdown passes to go with 13 interceptions and 31 sacks.

“He’s going to be in a different uniform — that would be a little bit different for all of us — but we have played against Donovan many times,” Tom Coughlin said yesterday, “and he certainly is an outstanding quarterback and leader of his team, no matter whether it’s Philadelphia or Washington.”

Four weeks ago, McNabb was disrespected by his own coach when Shanahan, with 1:50 remaining and the Redskins down by six points in an eventual 37-25 loss in Detroit, yanked McNabb from the game in favor of Grossman, who was sacked and fumbled the ball away on his very first play. That sparked a firestorm of criticism, especially after Shanahan offered all sorts of different and bizarre reasons for the controversial move. Shanahan first explained the move as “gut feel” and later changed his tune, stating McNabb didn’t have the “cardiovascular endurance” to handle the fast pace of the two-minute drill.

“Things have settled down,” McNabb said. “I don’t have to answer that question too much anymore. At least that’s a bonus. Again, I think for all of us that we have to move on from the situation and focus on what we have to do to be a good football team over here.”

More than a few Giants were puzzled and amazed that a quarterback with McNabb’s resume would ever be benched late in a game.

“Seeing that happen, it was like ‘Wow,’ ” safety Deon Grant said. “Things change so much in this league you can’t be surprised of nothing, but we definitely were like ‘Wow.’ ”

There hasn’t been much “wow” for McNabb with the Redskins, who are severely depleted at running back. Still, there’s too much history with McNabb and the Giants for any overlooking what he can do when in top form. McNabb is 10-8 in all games against the Giants in the regular season and 10-6 as a starter. He’s 1-1 in the playoffs against the Giants, losing 20-10 in 2000 and knocking off the Giants 23-11 in 2008.

“When you play against a team for 11 years, you build a good relationship with them as far as what they’re doing and the defensive coordinators and things of that nature,” McNabb said.

No wonder Coughlin said, “My thoughts can’t be expressed at this time” when asked his reaction in April when the trade went down, keeping McNabb in the NFC East. McNabb has thrown 25 touchdown passes and six interceptions against the Giants, all while wearing green and white, and not the burgundy and gold he’ll be in this weekend.

McNabb, 34, is not the scrambling threat he once was, but he can still pull the ball down and take off, not to the extent of Michael Vick or even David Garrard, the last two quarterbacks the Giants have faced.

“A lot of people don’t give him enough credit,” Grant said. “You look at what he did in Philly, those guys went to the NFC Championship game three, four times and you got to count the Super Bowl. Whatever he’s doing is working, we just got to make sure we don’t let him do it this week.”